The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants at Work Too

Robby Berman is a reporter, father, and musician who creates and discovers good stuff for the Internet world.

I like it

Share

What can we say? Love happens. And it happens plenty at the office, as CareerBuilder’s just-released annual Valentines Day report reveals. 37% of people surveyed have dated someone from work. And 33% have actually married someone they met at the office, such as, the report notes, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Brad Pitt.

The survey was conducted for CareerBuilder by Harris Poll from November 4 to December 1, 2015. It included 3,252 full-time, non-governmental workers across a range of company sizes and in a variety of industries. Here’s what they found out about office amour.

12% of peoples’ office romances began late one night at the office, while 10% bubbled to the surface at Happy Hour and at chance meetings out in the world. 9% got hit by Cupid’s arrow at lunch. Nearly one in ten reported their relationships were the result of love at first sight. Not everyone acts on their feelings, of course, with 8% deciding they’ll just settle for having a platonic work spouse.

26% of women dating at work have gone out with someone higher up in the company. 20% of men have done the same.

Many work couples — about a third — conclude it’s best to keep their connection secret. (Maybe this is partially because 17% of office romances involve at least one married person.) Of the couples loving on the QT, 25% of them have inconveniently bumped into other coworkers out of the office. 17% admitted their relationship, while another 10% just said, “Nope, nothing happening here.” Lying may not matter anyway, since 65% of people surveyed said they were very confident they knew of all of the hookups — public or otherwise — in their offices.

What about office romances that don’t last? 5% of people surveyed said they’ve left a job as the result of a broken heart.